Psychologist reveals how a narcissistic boss can ruin your career - and how you can avoid their wrath

Those who have had the misfortune of working for a toxic boss will be familiar with their unbounded expectations. No matter if you're starting early and finishing late, meeting an absent colleague's responsibilities as well as your own and picking up the phone before dawn, it's still not enough to elicit a 'well done' let alone a pay rise. But while a toxic boss who is 'exacting or demanding or perfectionistic' might drive employees to burnout, they're nothing on a narcissistic one who can be doubly troublesome, according to Los Angeles-based psychologist Dr Ramani Durvasula.

Not only will a narcissistic manager expect the world of their underlings, they will also seek to arrest their professional progress in a poorly understood process known as 'future-freezing'. Described by Dr Ramani, 59, as 'pretty effed-up,' future-freezing is not a million miles away from future-faking - a deceitful tactic involving making false promises. A narcissistic person might deploy future-faking in order to keep a dissatisfied partner around or get their own way.

In a similar way, future-freezing is a tactic used by a narcissistic boss to prevent their employee from progressing professionally - usually because it suits them to have that person in a supportive role. In a video on her YouTube channel, which has 1.87 subscribers, Dr Ramani says: ‘You thought future-faking was bad. In the workplace, the future stuff is even worse.'. Dr Ramani Durvasula (pictured) explains that a narcissistic boss may try to arrest their employee's progress in a process known as 'future-freezing'.

Fortunately, the psychologist, formerly a professor at California State University, Los Angeles, not only explains what future freezing is and how to spot it - she also tells employees how they can free from themselves from the grip of a narcissistic boss and progress their career in a timely manner. 'The selfishness of a narcissistic boss, like any narcissistic person, knows no bounds,' Dr Ramani begins.

As such, any lingering belief that they have their team member's best interests at heart is nothing more than fiction. The psychologist continues: ‘Some of you may have detected that your boss was narcissistic but also believed that working hard will get you ahead or that someone would take notice of it and there would be an opportunity to grow within the organisation.'. Yet Dr Ramani quickly dispels this myth by explaining that rather than rewarding your achievements with a promotion or a pay rise, a narcissistic boss will do everything in their power to keep you in your place - usually because it works in their favour.

Dr Ramani explains: 'You may be doing your job uncomplainingly, keeping your eye on the prize, believing that if you do well, you will be advanced. [But] because they are narcissistic, they have zero interest in your growth or your potential. 'They only know that with you around - and they feel entitled to you being around, by the way -  that it's better for them.'. Because, even if the narcissistic boss takes credit for their conscientious employee's hard work, deep down they are aware that they need them and would be worse off if that person moved on.

The Los Angeles-based psychologist was speaking in a video posted to her YouTube channel, which has 1.87 million subscribers. It's at this point that the future-freezing comes in to play, according to Dr Ramani. She says: 'This takes us to the whole "future-frozen" part and this is actually pretty effed up. The narcissistic boss... will actually hold you back.'. A narcissistic boss is likened to a narcissistic parent who expects their child to anticipate and meet their needs.

Like a narcissistic parent, a narcissistic boss will accuse their high-achieving employee of being ungrateful, greedy or selfish should they express their desire to progress or pursue a different path. 'The narcissistic boss feels entitled to you as well and that pattern of subjugation shows up in the same way,' Dr Ramani says. 'With a narcissistic boss, you exist for them, for their career, and they will label you as selfish.'.

They might equally call their employee a poor team player and accuse them of being ruthless, suggesting that they're the one who's behaving badly - just because they're striving for more. And, in their attempt to future-freeze, they will fall back on the all too familiar tactic of future-faking. A narcissistic boss may try to keep their talented and hard-working employees from progressing because their own reputation relies on their efforts (stock image).

'They may tell you that you are not ready to advance - even though you are - and they may future fake you and tell you that the team just needs to get past some made up deadline or bench mark and then you can talk about it,' Dr Ramani explains. Similarly, the narcissistic boss may lie outright, denying that their are opportunities for promotion, for example. Perhaps even more worrying, a narcissistic boss bent on holding an employee back is likely to try to sabotage any attempts they make to move on to a better position.